Summary
What Omniscience Means
"If I only knew then what I know now." That phrase reveals something fundamental about us: knowledge is something we acquire. We are born knowing nothing, we learn slowly, sometimes the hard way, and even after a lifetime of study we never know everything. We are, in a word, not omniscient. The term comes from Latin—omnis (all) and scientia (knowledge)—and it belongs to God alone. He alone knows it all.
Scripture insists on this without qualification. "The Lord searches every mind and understands every plan and thought" 1 Chronicles 28:9. "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good" Proverbs 15:3. "The Lord is a God of knowledge" 1 Samuel 2:3. "He knows everything" 1 John 3:20. And Isaiah 40 presses the point with rhetorical force: no one taught God the path of justice, no one instructed him in knowledge. God has never learned anything, because he has always known everything.
Against Open Theism
About thirty years ago a teaching called open theism appeared on the theological scene, claiming that God does not know the future but learns it along with us, reacting to events as they unfold. The idea collapses under its own weight: the Creator of the universe would be reduced to a spectator of his own creation. Scripture answers plainly: "He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see?" Psalm 94:9. God's knowledge is perfect, complete, and total—including the future, which to him is not future at all.
Psalm 139: Searched and Known
David's meditation in Psalm 139 unfolds this attribute with awe. "O Lord, you have searched me and known me" (v. 1)—God knows you better than you know yourself. He knows when you sit down and rise up, and discerns your thoughts from far away (v. 2). He is acquainted with all your ways (v. 3). Before a word is on your tongue, he knows it completely (v. 4)—not only the words you have spoken, but every word you will ever speak. He hems you in behind and before (v. 5).
This is why Jonah's flight is almost comical: it is hard to flee from a God who always knows where you are. It is why Adam and Eve's hiding in the garden was futile. God never has to ask in confusion where his creatures are. He knows every thought—including the ones thankfully filtered before reaching the tongue. He knows every word, including those muttered softly when we think no one hears. He knows every deed done and every duty left undone.
Terrifying—Until the Cross
Such knowledge can be terrifying. A holy God knows us at a level no friend or spouse ever could, and he knows the worst of us. John 2:24-25 records that even when many "believed" in Jesus because of his signs, Jesus did not entrust himself to them, "for he himself knew what was in man." Luther called this kind of belief milk faith—the faith that lasts only until one hears something unwelcome or until life turns bumpy, and then sours like aged milk. Jesus saw it for what it was.
And yet—this is the wonder—the One who knows all that is in us still set his face toward Jerusalem. The omniscient Christ, fully aware of every sin, every betrayal, every shallow faith, knowingly bore all of it to the cross "for the joy that was set before him" Hebrews 12:2. He was not deceived into saving us. He saved us with his eyes wide open.
A Source of Comfort
That is why David finally exclaims, "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it" Psalm 139:6. For the baptized, the “Omniscience” 8-28-22 of God is not a threat but a deep comfort. Every concern, every struggle, every heartache, every weakness, every wandering—he knows them all. The very One who has redeemed you is already at work to help. He already knows the future you fear; he is already there. And when you arrive, you meet him by the same grace that meets you today. None of us are omniscient, and never will be. But God is—and he is for us in Christ.
Video citations
- “Omniscience” 8-28-22 — What you open up your Bibles, please, for our study this morning, to the book of Psalms, Psalm 139. If you're using a Pew edition of Holy Scripture, you're going to find that on page 540 in the Old…